Tuesday, 30 October 2012

I am stoked to have won the British Wavesailing Association UK final stop in Cornwall! 16 girls entered, which is absolutely amazing and definitely the most I've ever competed against in the UK events, I had to do three heats to get to the top! Ha ha! The conditions weren't classic down the line Gwithian, rather cross onshore starboard then port tack with very small waves, but at least it was windy! It was pretty fun sailing on the Saturday, but by the time my heat came round on Sunday evening in the double elimination, there was so little wind I struggled for speed on the wave even with Stef's 85l and a 5m sail! (Smaller boards are so much better!) We had the monsters ball on Saturday night at Sandsifters, which was really fun this year as it was a bit smaller than last year, with rum and coke fuelling the night!

Thanks to all the judges and organisers, it was such a cold weekend to hang a round in a wetsuit for a couple of hours let alone sit all day in the cold with a score sheet! And well done to all the girls, some brilliant sailing, the level has definitely got higher! Results are: 1st Me, 2nd Debbie Kennedy and 3rd Justyna Sniady.

Sunday, 21 October 2012

I wouldn't normally take precious leave for a UK forecast, as it can be quite fickle and I have a few trips planned with my 5 weeks a year, but Wednesday seemed like Gwithian was going to go off! Big swell, (with a little south in it), Southerly winds 20-30 knots, and sunny!

We left Tuesday night for a surf at Fistral, which was as always, like a zoo. Way too many people, and if you did catch a wave there was almost definitely a few people on the inside in the way. Despite this, it was big, but high springs so the waves were a bit fat. The most entertaining bit of the session was when we came in the high shorebreak, the fence has ripped away from the sand dune and a few people were getting tumbled in it as they came in. It was cold when we finished, my feet were like complete ice blocks! Unfortunately time for my boots...

Wednesday we woke up at Gwithian with high tide, and decided after a wait we would head to Mexico's with George Shillito, Mike Ellis and Jeff Scott. We had a good session, I was on 3.7 and 68l, on which I was completely overpowered sometimes and then with no wind the next, classic. It came to low and dumpy so we dragged all our kit up the massive sanddune and had an amazing atheletes lunch of burgers and sandwiches (thanks Jeff!). On our afternoon session we took turns with photos, but the wind was more offshore and more gusty, it was really hard work. We had some really nice waves though, and when the wind died with high tide, we couldn't resist running up the hill (again) and grabbing our surfboards. Amazing day well worth taking leave for!

Today we also had some good swell at Godrevy, big, 14 second period and offshore. The waves looked great but I struggled a little on my 5'10'' with speed in catching them and how busy it was on the peaks. Could have done with a 6'8'' gun today! Here are some photos:

Sunday, 7 October 2012

Last Sunday we had a really fun Gwithian session on our new Simmers, they feel great and yet again lighter compared to last year! It wasn't the biggest waves but was still really fun. Later tin the week we had a full power 4.2 session at Bigbury, which was bolt onshore making good practice for places like Sylt!

Here are some pics from Gwithian courtesy of Paul Monnington, thanks!

Here is a tiny clip of a wave at Gwithian, nothing spectacular, but I fell with one foot stuck in the straps and got caught under the sail for a while. The way it was twisted made it hard to get out and I ran out of air thrashing around. It was only a few seconds (nothing compared to a big hold down surfing or in massive waves!) but it still shook me a little...easily done!

Yesterday we got pretty frustrated with how rubbish the surf has been down here, it was tiny. 3 of us contemplated for a while and then ended up driving to Newquay and buying an Adams board each (great deal for the 3 of us...), absolutely outrageous day! So today, all shiny and new, I tried my Adams 5'8'' shuttle and it was amazing, the perfect board in my quiver with my 5'10'' smaller board, it flies! No more complaining about small waves now, I'll just start learning tricks instead :) Surf looks good on the South coast for a couple of days too...

Monday, 17 September 2012

We had an amazing weekend at National Windsurf Festival on Hayling Island last weekend, the wind didn't play ball but everyone sure made up for it in the party! Of the 3 or 4 NWFs I have been to over the years this was definitely the biggest! I was chuffed to get picked by Jenna in the night windsurf too-so we covered ourselves in glow sticks and raced with all the other kid/pro combos. Unfortunately there was no wind at all, really glassy, so for me it was more of a paddle race than a night windsurf! Really fun though...

Images courtesy of Dave White,this is day 1, good to see so many keen people on the water!

I thought the best fancy dress of the night was definitely the Smurfs!

We also have our new Simmer Icons! They look awesome and I can't wait to try them, we haven't had any wind in Cornwall this week but as soon as we do I'll get some pictures out. We did have a 3 surf weekend and a good surf Saturday morning though-finally a bit of size to the swell, but still waiting for a bigger swell to come this winter!

About Me

I started windsurfing when I was 16 on family watersports holidays once a year. I got properly hooked on my gap year in the British Army in 2005, competing and training in Egypt, Holland and the UK. During this year I saved some money for my own kit and in 2006 started studying aerospace engineering at Southampton University, joining the windsurf club. Sailing around the South coast with lots of friends provided lots of competition, and competing all around the country against other Universities in the Student Windsurf Association events gave me an appetite for competing. For the last couple of years at University I competed in the UK wave circuit, travelling to Wales, Ireland and Scotland. In 2010 after University I secured a job with a big engineering firm, Babcock, but managed to get a deferred entry and sailed in Brazil, Maui and the Canaries, competing in my first PWA event in Gran Canaria. Now I live and work in Plymouth in the UK and sail and surf as much as possible around my job.